Nearly a decade after the TTC retired the last of its articulated buses, new models will be running on some of the city’s busiest routes starting in the fall of 2013.

The city councillors on the Toronto Transit Commission are expected in September to approve a $24.3-million contract to Nova Bus, a division of Volvo, in St. Eustache, Que.

That contract covers the cost of 27 buses to be delivered next year and gives the TTC the option to buy up to 153 of the 60-foot LFS Artic diesel buses, said a spokeswoman for Nova.

TTC spokesman Brad Ross said more buses will be delivered in 2014.

Nova supplies the same buses to New York City. Each one carries up to 112 people, compared with about 65 on a standard 40-foot TTC bus.

The idea of returning articulated buses to Toronto was a result of the TTC’s cost-crunching budget process last year. About the same time, it was looking at ways to accommodate more riders on Finch West while that busy route awaits the construction of an LRT.

Among the TTC’s fleet of 1,800 buses the Artics won’t dominate, but they will provide more reliability on routes such as Finch, Dufferin and Don Mills, where riders are frequently left standing at stops because their buses are too full, said TTC spokesman Brad Ross.

The trade-off will be less frequent service, he said.

“They will be used primarily in our busiest bus routes to deal with congestion. Three doors will allow for boarding and alighting,” Ross said.

The TTC is still figuring out how to speed up boarding and fare payment when so many people are getting on the longer buses, but that will probably emerge as the Presto fare payment cards are rolled out across the system by 2015.

The last generation of articulated TTC buses was officially retired in 2004 because of corrosion problems. Those Ikarus buses, partially built in Hungary, were assembled by Orion in Mississauga.

Mississauga and York Region use articulated buses and the TTC uses articulated streetcars on its long Queen St. route.

Longer buses will save the TTC money on drivers as well.

“Operating costs are all driven by service,” Ross said. One (articulated bus) equals about one and half buses, so you end up having to deploy fewer buses on a route. So you can achieve some operating savings that way.”

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